Shaken celebrities had a lucky escape on Day One of their Red Nose Desert Trek when a rock-slide threatened to wreck the charity event almost before it had begun.

SHAKEN celebrities had a lucky escape on Day One of their Red Nose Desert Trek when a rock-slide threatened to wreck the charity event almost before it had begun.

Lorraine Kelly, Dermot O'Leary, Olly Murs and the other celebrities kicked off early yesterday morning for the first day of their 100km, f ive-day trek through Kaisut desert in Kenya.

And by the end of a day marred by incident, Lorraine no doubt gave herself a "Well done, you" she usually reserves for her TV guests.

For as well as having to jump for cover at the rockslide, the group came across their first snake and wilted under the 35C heat.

Visually impaired Radio 4 presenter Peter White said: "I would say today was the most physically challenging day of my entire life so far.

"As a blind person, trying to combine a steep climb while dodging rockslides is really tough. Dermot and I did a difficult bit of the climb together. I held on to his rucksack and tried not to drag him down. And this is the first day!"

The team had begun to trek over a steep hill of 4000ft when they were almost hit by the rockslide.

Luckily, no one was injured but it took half an hour to clear the path.

As soon as one danger was averted, the group, which also includes Scott Mills, Ronni Ancona, Craig David, Nadia Sawalha and Kara Tointon, walked straight into another as they were met by a deadly viper snake which they carefully had to avoid.

As they trekked down the other side of the hill, the team hit the edge of the desert with temperatures topping 35C.

Everyone struggled and the scale of their challenge really hit home as they made the desert proper. And the team were also momentarily split up as they crossed maze-like terrain.

Unfortunately for some, it wasn't just rockslides, snakes and heat that were a problem. Nadia had a sleepless night on Sunday with a stomach bug.

She said: "After a night spent more on the toilet than in my tent, it was good to get the trek under way, although I was nervous and felt unwell when I started this morning.

"But the team really helped me through. It has been really tough so far. The rockslide was a bit of a shock and even after all the briefings we've had about snakes, I didn't expect we'd come across one in the first two hours."

Their journey will be captured for a documentary which will be screened before Red Nose Day. You can follow the action at rednoseday.com/trek where you can also donate.